Today we caught up with Alice Mazzilli who will be teaching the brand new Calligraphy Weekend short course which starts in November, and also tutors upon the Introduction to Lettercraft Workshop. From graffiti to illustration and typography, Alice tells us how this led to working in calligraphy, discusses some of her favourite projects and shares images of her incredible work.

Alice Mazzilli

Hi, what is your name and what do you teach?

My name is Alice Mazzilli, a.k.a. AmpersandAlice, and I teach calligraphy.

How did you come to work in your field?

I’ve always been into lettering since I was a child. I was into graffiti in my teenage years. Then I moved to London where I studied and worked in illustration, typography and print until I started an apprenticeship with a professional calligrapher. This experience led me to open my own company and work full time in calligraphy.

Could you tell us a little bit about something you’ve been working on recently as well as your wider practice?

One of my favourite commissions was through MontBlanc for a live event at the British Library celebrating graffiti and the history of writing. I had to create a panel live using mixed media. I really enjoy working on such a big scale, concentrating on the rhythm and movement. Another side of my work I really enjoy is around poetry.

So why not take your first steps into creative writing; whether you’re just starting out or planning your first epic novel, we’ve spaces available upon the Creative Writing – Fact or Fiction – Beginners and the Intensive course running April, to book right now! See you there.

What are you most passionate about?

How did you come to work in your field / discipline?

I was working in production on TV commercials and realised I wanted to do something else. I read a book that detailed the working weeks of various people in the British film industry. One of them, a producer, wrote about going to meet the designers creating the posters for her latest film. I immediately realised that that was what I wanted to do – make posters!

What/where is your favourite London discovery?

Hoxton Street Monster Supplies – Bespoke and Everyday Items for the Living, Dead and Undead. A fantastical store that hides a children’s writing centre, the Ministry of Stories, behind its shelves. No.1 Kids’ Shop in London according to Time Out magazine.

(Full disclosure – I’m one of the co-founders, and Art Director, of both the charity and the shop.)

What advice would you give to aspiring creatives?

Want to see more work from Alistair? Visit his design brand’s website here, or follow him on Instagram or Twitter. If you’re feeling inspired why not see our full list of available courses on our website.

In today’s Meet Our Tutors series we spoke with a brand new tutor to CSM Short Courses, Matteo Augello. Matteo will be teaching a new Saturday and Sunday course, Developing Identities Through Clothes Weekend; here we discusses his practice, passions and explore the new course starting in December.

What are you most passionate about?

Performance. Any genre of performance, from opera to kabuki theatre, from ballet to voguing, from symphonic orchestras to electro sets. I love attending these events, discovering new movements, new sounds, new techniques: anything can be a stimulus for my research. What I am mostly passionate about is retrieving performance history. There are so many performances of which we have no audio-visual records and I love going on quests to find as much evidence as possible to get a physical sense of the performance: it is a very exciting detective work!

How did you come to work in your field / discipline?

I was trained as a fashion curator and historian in Milan and then in London, where I did an MA Fashion Curation at London College of Fashion. I then moved towards costume history, a shift triggered by my passion for performance, and I have now come to research fashion as a fundamental tool used in all forms of performances. I was associate curator of Costume in Action (chief-curator: Donatella Barbieri), a series of talks dedicated to costume during World Stage Design 2013 in Cardiff. I then worked as researcher at the Theatre and Performance Department of the V&A, where I contributed to the exhibition Opera: Passion, Power & Politics, curated by Kate Bailey in 2017.

Can you tell us more about your work?

I am devoted to the dissemination of knowledge, experimenting with the intersections between academic research and all forms of cultural fruition. Whether I am teaching, performing or putting together an exhibition, my aim is to tell stories from the past that I find fascinating and which I believe are still relevant today. In November 2017, I created a performance at the Victoria and Albert Museum on the history of female singers in opera – The Art of the Prima Donna. It was a combination of theatre, drag and academic lecture. Costumes played a fundamental part in it, as they were the only elements characterising the singers I impersonated. The format proved successful and I am currently working on a new show about women in flamenco.

What courses do you teach and who should attend them?

I teach a course called Developing Identities Through Clothing Weekend. The idea behind the course is that clothes are embedded with meanings, they suggest how we should move, they influence how others perceive us: we should all learn to master the communicative power of clothes. During the course, participants will reflect on their own identities, bodies and wardrobes, and through exercises they will experiment with how much their public persona can change with a change of clothes. The course is open to anyone who wants to learn about clothes: actors seeking to create a character, a businessman who wants to be more authoritative, stylists looking for a different approach, people who want to feel more comfortable with their looks.

Which piece of creative work, in any discipline, do you think everyone should see and why?

This is one of the hardest questions I have ever had to answer. There are so many works, and so many cultures, it would be impossible to make a pondered choice. I pick Caravaggio because I am from the same village in Northern Italy as the painter but mostly because he is one of the greatest artists of all time: the theatrical quality of his Chiaroscuro is just mesmerising. If you’re in London, you must visit The National Gallery, they have three Caravaggios: Boy Bitten by a Lizard, Salome Receives the Head of John the Baptist and The Supper at Emmaus.

Name a favourite book, film and song that you would recommend.

Ways of Seeing by John Berger is a great piece of art criticism and a masterclass in developing a new perspective. It was conceived as a documentary broadcast by BBC in 1972 and the scripts were later turned into a book.

The film The Women directed by George Cukor in 1939 is a hilarious comedy about the lives of women in New York and a celebration of fashion: all the gowns are by the costume designer Adrian, who created unique styles for each character.

Judy at the Carnegie Hall is the live album recorded by Judy Garland in 1961 at the famous concert hall in New York. This is truly a historical record as it captured Garland’s dramatic skills and unique voice in a thunderous performance.

What/where is your favourite London discovery?

Wilton’s Music Hall is London’s oldest operating music hall: the two bars have an atmosphere of speakeasies while the stage takes you back to a time of cabaret and society’s misfits pushing the boundaries of performance.

What advice would you give to aspiring creatives?

To be open to new suggestions and take every chance to get out of your comfort zones; you need to constantly seek new stimuli and elaborate them within your creative practice. Look for the unexpected, cherish your mistakes, nothing is unworthy of your attention and everything can be potentially inspiring.

Today we share the wonderful work of pattern cutter and Central Saint Martins BA Fashion and short course tutor, Jill Entwistle. Jill has 20 years of experience in the fashion industry and began teaching at CSM eight years ago. She also freelance pattern cuts on a part-time or project by project basis. For the exhibition Jill is showing a custom made work in progress garment on a pattern cutting mannequin, emphasising the exhibition’s theme of process and form. Behind the mannequin sits a banner showing 360° views of the mannequin displayed in the show as well as one other. In the words of the show’s curator, Hugo Bou-Assaf, her atypical and experimental work “acts as a sculptural disturbance of the accepted geometry in garment design.”

How did you come to work in your field/discipline?

I began by making clothes on my bedroom floor as a teen, my interests were fashion, art and music, growing up in Manchester at a time when music was so important to youth culture. I completed an Arts Foundation at Manchester Poly, then went on to take a degree in Fashion and Textiles at Birmingham Polytechnic. I then moved to London, where began my career working in the fashion industry assisting, and eventually designing and pattern making.

In that time I worked for various designers, Joe Casey-Hayford taught me about contemporary tailoring techniques and design for men and women, and construction, showing at London fashion week, and in Paris. I then worked for Ici La Fille, selling to Joseph, and again exhibiting in a Paris. I took on freelance pattern making and illustration, and then began working for Name designing their in store collections for wholesale and retail. After a few years of freelancing, I went full-time to work for Ghost where I learnt about their very unique process of cutting and making Ghost garments. They had catwalk shows in New York and London, and four collections a year, I became the Design Coordinator.

I went freelance again in 2007, and began teaching Pattern making at CSM in 2009 on the BA Fashion course. I’ve been teaching on short courses in pattern making also for the past seven years, whilst also freelance pattern making.

Where do you get your inspiration from and how do you stay inspired?

Tell us about the work you submitted, being featured in the Central Saint Martins Short Courses exhibition.

The works I submitted to the exhibition are toiles for two of the exercises on the Patternmaking – Experimental And Explorative Approaches Part 1course. The calico bodice (displayed on the pattern cutting mannequin in the window) is based on an early 1950’s Dior illustration for a resort piece – made using a moulding technique. The second piece is taken from a Halston evening jacket using a draping and deconstructing technique.

Today we are talking with Central Saint Martin’s printmaking tutor, Sean Myers, to learn more about his work featured in the CSM Short Courses exhibition and to get a more in-depth look at his own artistic practice.

How did you come to work in your field/discipline?

I studied for my B/TEC in Art and Design at Chelsea College of Art and Design between 1988-90, it was whilst on the painting pathway I discovered Chelsea having a small print room, behind the painting studios, and I immediately became fascinated by the indirect and sometime accidental mark-making possibilities in printmaking. This ‘back to front’ or reflective way of working is still a source of great excitement for me which I then pass on to students taking my courses at Central Saint Martins, and more recently Chelsea College of Arts.

Tell us about your work.

I have always been interested in portraying depth and movement when I make my work, as I like to challenge the notion that printmaking, and in particular screen-printing, can sometimes look quite flat and two dimensional. Looking for inspiration for this depth and movement whilst researching my thesis during the printmaking degree at CSM, I became hugely interested in science and nature, and the theories of the late, great theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking in his celebrated book ‘A Brief History of Time’ which he wrote to communicate his ideas to the science community but also in layman terms to the general public.

Without question he wrote about an incredibly ‘difficult to understand’ subject matter which challenges most peoples’ understanding of how humans, our world environment, galaxies and the universe works.

I thought he wrote beautifully in a very descriptive way, which helped me to visualise some of his theories such as; bubble and parallel universe(s) and the idea that tiny sub-atomic particles (found in everything we see) can occupy a multi-layered position in space/time.

Phew!

The type of language he uses is very descriptive and really is still a starting point and continued source of inspiration for me and how I see my art progressing.

Where do you get your inspiration from and how do you stay inspired?

It comes from reading about contemporary scientific ideas, particularly ‘particle physics’. I also use my digital camera a lot, as I always carry it on me, looking for temporary moments in nature which depict interesting compositions, colour, tone, texture, light, movement and energy.

What are you working on at the moment?

My imagination pays homage to Hawking’s theories of multi-dimensional space/time and I next really want to explore this in much greater depth and how his way of thinking is also linked to nature and the human body through my work on skin, cellular structure and also the natural energies found in plants and how it all relates to a broader scientific and artistic understanding of the subject. I am also working on how to combine art and scientific understanding into a curriculum so science is more attractive to young people in schools as well as artists and academics in higher education.

Tell us about the work you submitted, being featured in the Central Saint Martins Short Courses exhibition.

The unique prints in the CSM window gallery are mainly multi-layered screen-prints and mono-prints reflecting my idea of being visually influenced only by Stephen Hawking’s text without any artist or secondary visual reference.

In these works’ I created my own ‘primordial’ experiments in petri dishes to depict energy, depth and movement using various inks, pigments and water. I then photographed the results with the intention of making photographic stencils for my multi-layered way of working in the screen-printing process.

I like to use printmaking as my medium of choice for the art I make, as it has this similarity of process (layering and intuitive thought) with Hawking’s view of our ‘quantum’ world which also seems very layered, random and abstract to our understanding right now. My imagination pays homage to his theories of multi-dimensional space/time and I next really want to explore in much greater depth, on how his way of thinking is also linked to nature and the human body through my work on skin, cellular structure and natural energies.

Which piece of creative work, in any discipline, do you think everyone should see and why?

Any work by artists Gerhard Richter or Anselm Kiefer due to the sheer scale, colour, mark-making, movement and physical presence of their art. Richter in particular used a screen-printing squeegee to produce the fast moving waves of colour merges in his paintings, whilst Kiefer uses so many textural materials and mixed-media imagery to determine his ideas on memory and human existence.

What advice would you give to aspiring creatives?

Embrace all types of influence from the world around us even if you don’t think it is not directly related to art and design. In my view, creativity is a personal expression of what we see, hear and do in our lives and we all think differently to one another. Work hard to try to find your voice/style and ask yourself; how are you different, original and unique from other art and design practitioners?

How did you come to work in your field/discipline?

I always knew I wanted to make things from a very early age. I used to spend lots of time in my grandfather’s tool shed making all sorts of toys, gadgets and odd objects. I used to want to be an inventor and then an architect until I discovered product design.

Tell us about your work.

I have worked many years in industry and as a freelancer with the design of home accessories, furniture, lighting and interiors. This has been for a wide variety of clients in both London and Copenhagen, where I am now based.

Where do you get your inspiration from and how do you stay inspired?

I get my inspiration from contemporary art, technology and life around me. How people use things not just on a functional level, but the emotional connections people can have with objects is fascinating. Looking at what my peers are doing keeps me challenged and hungry for more.

What are you working on at the moment?

I am working on a product which looks at people’s need to care for and have plants as well as flowers in the home. Research suggests that by doing so people become more present in the moment and disconnect from technology (i.e. phones).

Tell us about the work you submitted, being featured in the Central Saint Martins Short Courses exhibition.

It is a selection of my current work in progress titled “A Product Designer’s Wunderkammer”. On show is a unit with four shelves displaying four projects within the areas of home accessories, tableware, storage and packaging. It is a behind-the-scene look at my process including references to my inspiration and models showing the development of an object. It gives you an insight into the may skills used when designing products.

Which piece of creative work, in any discipline, do you think everyone should see and why?

Everyone should visit the Victoria and Albert Museum. Understanding the culture and history of objects is so important and appreciating that whatever you create is an iteration of the past.

What is the best bit of advice you have ever received?

My drawing teacher, Jannik, used to tell me ‘kill your darlings’. It’s about not getting too attached to the work you are doing which lets you move on to the next project. It sounds destructive, but It means being objective and having an ability to progress. Also, the uncompromising creative rigour of Patrik and Ian of Fredrikson Stallard is something that has stuck with me since working with them. Sometimes the best advice is seeing how it is done.

What advice would you give to aspiring creatives?

Produce work! As much as you can. Doesn’t matter if it is good or bad. Just make stuff. The more you make the better you will become at it. Put your phone down. Step away from your laptop. Go and make some stuff!

The courses I teach are very practical, allowing students to learn as they get to grips with the possibilities (and limitations) of the materials being used. I use set projects as a framework for the courses which allows beginners a supportive environment, and also gives intermediate students the chance to push things a bit further when they are ready.

Most of the projects are made in silver, although we use a range of materials throughout the courses, from acrylic and resin to copper, textiles and of course gemstones!

How did you come to work in your field/discipline?

I didn’t plan on becoming an artist initially – in fact I started a science degree – but when that didn’t work out, I applied to a Foundation Diploma course and it was there that I was briefly introduced to metalwork techniques. I have always enjoyed making things and drawing, and the miniature scale of jewellery attracted me enough to want to do a BA in the subject. I was lucky enough to be able to study at CSM and then take an MA at the Royal College of Art; my practise has evolved naturally and I have never had a plan for what I think I should be doing!

I started teaching Short Courses whilst I was doing my Masters and started teaching part-time on the BA Jewellery course not too long after; I attribute the breadth of my knowledge to having to find things out so that I could teach them! This knowledge has allowed me to write three technical jewellery books which have gone on to be translated into seven languages. I am still constantly learning though, and think that one of the best aspects of jewellery-making is that there is always something new to learn in terms of techniques, materials, history, culture and theory – it is a very large subject field.

I am also on the Board of Directors of the Association for Contemporary Jewellery, which is a members’ organisation dedicated to the promotion of contemporary jewellery. We organise exhibitions of members’ work, conferences and publish a bi-annual magazine of which I am the Technical Features Editor.

Tell us about your work.

My time is divided between teaching and my own studio practise, in which I work on private commissions and project-based or exhibition pieces. It was never my intention to become a commercial jeweller, although I do sell jewellery and jewellery-making tools through my online shop.

My jewellery is usually influenced by one of several recurring themes – the most prominent of which is mechanical forms. I am probably best know for my Machina Collection, and it is this style that I am usually commissioned to make. For this work, I am recycling components from broken machines such as cameras and cassette players by transforming them directly into silver or gold, and combining them with handmade elements and semi-precious gemstones. I have a very particular aesthetic for this work and like to use chemicals to colour the silver to give it a sense of age.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m between two projects at the moment. I’ve just started writing my fourth technical jewellery book which is about a particular metalworking technique that my partner Paul Wells (also a Short Courses tutor) has been developing. It’s already a fascinating project, as Paul is breaking new ground with his technical processes and I am excited to see it develop further.

I am also finishing up the collaborative project that I have been working on with photographer Lindsay Cameron – The Lily Holds Firm. We started the project in 2013, and I don’t think either of us imagined that it would take nearly five years to complete! Using nineteenth century funeral cards as our starting point, we have recreated scenes depicted on the cards. This has meant making physical representations of many of the objects illustrated in these engravings, to scale, and combining them with found objects to build dioramas which we have photographed.

More images of the original cards and the pieces I’ve made inspired by them can be explored at www.thelilyholdsfirm.com.

Tell us about the work you submitted to be featured in the Central Saint Martins Short Courses exhibition.

The pieces I have in the exhibition are all from the project The Lily Holds Firm. The Hearts on Chains were made for Card Number 2: The Sacred Link. This piece is the focal point of the whole image and it took several months to complete. Every heart is formed from flat copper sheet, and every link in the chain was made by hand from twisted square brass wire – these are the techniques which I am demonstrating in the video accompanying the exhibition.

The Glory Bangles are made from cast epoxy resin which I have custom dyed. I created them by taking a mould from chandelier crystals, allowing me to recreate many copies in a range of colours. These pieces are used in many of the images in the project, usually blending into the background, so it has been interesting to see them displayed as pieces in their own right.

Which piece of creative work, in any discipline, do you think everyone should see and why?

I tend to enjoy immersive environments more readily than isolated artworks in a gallery context. I find inspiration in collections of objects or curated spaces because I can relate to the narratives behind and between the pieces more readily when they are in conversation with each other. Places that allow you to soak up the atmosphere, such as the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Sir John Soane’s Museum, Dennis Sever’s House or the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston are just perfect.

How did you come to work in your field/discipline?

After gaining some experience at a small design studio in South London, I launched my own brand – Kangan Arora – initially designing and making a small collection of soft furnishings that I took to design trade shows to sell. That was back in 2011, and since then the studio has grown a lot and now focuses on design collaborations

Tell us about your work

I run a design studio in South London producing small editions of soft furnishings as well as collaborating with various companies. I’ve designed bedding for Urban Outfitters, limited edition cushions for Heal’s, rugs for Floor_Story and packaging for REN skincare; so the work is quite varied.

My work is driven by a love of craft, colour and geometry and that’s a vein that runs across all the projects.

Where do you get your inspiration from and how do you stay inspired?

Inspiration comes in so many forms, but mostly just being in the cultural hotpot that is London. I visit a lot of galleries and exhibitions, meet a lot of interesting people (including the students here!). My main inspiration however, remains India, my home that I visit at least once a year.

What are you working on at the moment (if anything)?

I’m prepping for a 2 week workshop I’m teaching this September in Japan at the Kyoto Design-Lab. I’m also prepping for a Christmas launch of a collection I designed last year for a large design company. Unfortunately I’m not at liberty to say who at this stage but watch this space!

Tell us about the work you submitted to be featured in the Central Saint Martins Short Courses exhibition.

The cushions are from my 2015 collection, Fluorescent Forest. I thought it would be fun to show some of the process behind the making of the prints so you can see the original artwork, the screens and a short video of me printing the design.

Which piece of creative work, in any discipline, do you think everyone should see and why?

I think everyone should watch Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love, it is one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen. Each frame is like a still photograph or a renaissance painting, I think it’s a great study in film, photography, art, painting, costume and colour.